Traffic headaches follow ex-Houstonians into the suburbs

Suburbanites ran, but couldn't hide, from traffic painMany lured to Houston suburbs by the promise of a slower pace are finding just that — on the road

BILL MURPHY, Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Monday, May 5, 2008

Photo: Karen Warren, Chronicle

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Traffic backs up on Fry Road heading north toward I-10. Long stretches of the road are handling more than 46,000 vehicles daily.

Traffic backs up on Fry Road heading north toward I-10. Long stretches of the road are handling more than 46,000 vehicles daily.

Photo: Karen Warren, Chronicle

Traffic headaches follow ex-Houstonians into the suburbs

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Louanne Smith dutifully looks after her husband. So after he had a recent stressful week as an oil company geologist, she knew what would ease his chronic back problems: a massage from a licensed therapist.

That sounded good to him — until he remembered the traffic they would have to negotiate on Fry Road in Katy to reach the fitness center.

"He wouldn't let me make an appointment because he doesn't want to drive," his wife said.

Traffic congestion, long the bane of downtown workers and residents living near the city center, afflicts nearly all Houston area suburbs.

Many city residents lured to suburbs by spacious homes, good schools and the prospect of less stress are increasingly finding themselves on clogged streets linking highways to new subdivisions.

The congestion's causes are many: soaring numbers of residents, a lack of a traffic grid giving them options to get to highways and stores, funding shortfalls to carry out all needed road projects and simple neglect.

"We have focused on the congestion on our freeways. But, really, we have congestion everywhere," said Pat Wascowiak, planning and program manager at the Houston-Galveston Area Council, which seeks solutions to transportation and other issues facing 13 area counties. "We don't have good local mechanisms for responding to problems on these other roads."

Before moving to the suburbs, some people may have envisioned themselves puttering around their homes or yards on Saturdays. And that relaxed pace can be realized — as long as they stay home.

But if they venture out to pick up supplies for projects at a Home Depot or just to buy groceries, they may find themselves mired in traffic. Saturday is the day to be out, especially for families with two working parents or ones headed by single parents.

"The weekends are the worst. You can't move," said Stefanie Gilman of traffic on FM 518 in Pearland's commercial area near Texas 288. "On the weekends, you try to avoid all this."

A time to stay home

In Atascocita, David Feille avoids driving on FM 1960 and West Lake Houston Parkway on Saturday mornings. "That's the time I try to avoid the most. I either go out earlier or I go out later," he said.

When he does head out, it takes four or five signal changes to get through the intersection.

FM 518 in Pearland and Fry and Mason roads in Katy are good examples of streets being asked to do too much because drivers don't have other options, Wascowiak said. Long stretches of Fry and Mason are handling more than 46,000 vehicles daily — nearly 20,000 vehicles above the number for which they were designed.

The Houston Planning Commission helps decide where major thoroughfares will be built. The state gave the city the option of exercising such authority over areas that could be annexed under laws governing extra-territorial jurisdiction.

Harris County and other public bodies appoint a member to represent them on the commission.

Planning Commission chairwoman Carol Lewis, who teaches transportation planning at Texas Southern University, said the commission has become more sensitive to the need for building more streets that provide options.

But she cautioned that congestion in the Houston area might decrease, but would hardly go away if suburbia had a more extensive traffic grid. A multi-prong solution also would call for more mass transit options and greater reliance on flexible work schedules, allowing some workers to avoid morning and evening commutes, Lewis said.

Taxing roads

Holzer said developers should contribute more to building roads needed to serve the subdivisions, strip malls and other new buildings. But the state doesn't give counties the authority to impose impact fees on builders whose developments in unincorporated county areas will increase traffic on roads outside the developments.

Too often, counties find themselves forced to widen roads overwhelmed by traffic from new developments. And they don't have enough money to keep up with the need for new roads and additional lanes on roads, Gilmore said.

These roads will continue to be taxed because suburbia is growing at a faster rate than neighborhoods inside the Loop.

Unincorporated Harris County accounts for 1.38 million of the county's 3.9 million people. By 2020, 2 million of the county's more than 5 million people are projected to live in unincorporated Harris County, a county study found.